


somehow, somehow

by plinys



Series: ABC Fic Challenge [11]
Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 02:53:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4003093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Do you take all your ladies down here?"</p><p>"Just you, Carter."</p>
            </blockquote>





	somehow, somehow

**Author's Note:**

> For my ABC fic challenge and the word "kiss"!

She’s on a boat, in the middle of the artic, because she worried about him.

Jarvis had called her, that polite hint of worry in his tone, as he asked if Peggy would be inclined to accompany Howard on his next expedition to find Steve. It had been clear enough that Jarvis had yet to actually mention this idea to Howard, and when she pressed for more information it became all too clear. He had been off since what happened this past V-E Day.

It might not have been obvious to somebody who didn’t know Howard, certainly he still made the papers every other week for whatever latest scandal he had, but she knew well enough to see through the cracks.

“If he’d just give us his damn coordinates,” Howard mutters, adjusting something on one of the many screens in the room, unwilling to admit it was a fruitless endeavor.

“Why don’t we let the crew take over for a bit,” she suggests, pulling the far too extravagant fur coat Howard had forced on her tighter around her shoulders, “And go get some rest?”

Peggy doesn’t need to look at the crew to know what they’re thinking. It had been made quite clear when she came aboard, one of them giving her a long look before remarking that Howard didn’t usually bring his _girls_ along on these trips and that she must be something real special. She had been too shocked to properly respond at the time, but it had left an off feeling about her for much of that night.

“Yeah, alright,” he replies a second later, turning to the crew and telling them, “Let me know if anything exciting shows up, we’ll be in my office,” before offering her his arm.

Together they leave the main deck, heading into the depth of the ship before finally arriving at the room Howard had dubbed his _office_. It was certainly much more than that, decorated in a way not unlike the one he had at his mansion in New York, the only difference here was that the fireplace in the corner was clearly a fake and she knew beneath the expensive wallpaper were the metal walls of the ship.

“You have really outdone yourself this time,” Peggy says taking a turn around the room, “One could almost forget where we are.”

“Almost,” he agrees, going to the mini bar, because of course Howard’s ship would have a mini bar, and making them drinks.

“Do you take all your ladies down here,” she asks, with a teasing up tilt to her lips.

“Just you, Carter,” he replies, offering the drink up to her, which she gladly tastes.

It’s expensive whiskey. Lately she’s begun to develop a taste for such things.

“You know, Howard, I could get used to this,” she laughs raising the glass to her lips and settling into one of the extravagant seats.

She’s not expecting the tone of almost _longing_ that carries with his voice, as he asks, “Could you?”

Looking up seems like a mistake, but she does, because they’ve been dancing around this for too long, playing it all off as a good laugh, never having the discussion that they probably ought to have had years ago.

“It’s not going to work out, Howard, we both know that,” she points out, “Perhaps in another life, but here, we’re just not meant to be.”

“I know,” he nods, taking a drink from his glass, “But pal, wouldn’t it be worth giving it a shot, just to know for sure, one kiss and if there’s no chemistry we pretend it never happened.”

“Last time you tried that you ended up in the Thames.”

“I nearly drowned.”

“You deserved it,” she retorts.

And that gets a reaction out of him, a twitch of his lips upwards into a hint of that trademark smirk, “That I did, pal, which is why I’m asking permission this time.”

Peggy pauses as though considering the options.

They were friends, but she wouldn’t deny that she had thought about it once or twice. Not settling down with him, not for real, because that’s what it would be _settling_. Certainly it would be an easy life, he spoiled her now as friends, and if they were something more that would only increase. And maybe before the war, she would have considered it.

Then there is the fact that he alone understood that her heart had belonged first to somebody else, because his had belonged to the very same person.

She sets her glass down on the edge of table, stands from her seat in one fluid motion and crosses to where he is. Howard’s eyes never leave her, it’s almost flattering, in a way.

When she leans then in to kiss him, it’s not the sort of kiss people write about in the stories, it’s not the sort of kiss one has in the back of an SSR truck right before the world nearly ends.

It’s soft, tastes of the expensive brandy that they’d been drinking, but there aren’t any fireworks. The chemistry she had almost feared having appeared remains far away from them. It’s a weird sort of disappointment, realizing that she couldn’t have something she didn’t even want.

As she pulls back a moment later, she can see the same realization played out on his face, a twinge of disappointment masked by what pretends to be casual indifference.

“The verdict is,” Peggy asks.

“I’m almost glad you pushed me in the Thames,” he says with a little wink.

And any hint of awkwardness between them dissolves in that moment, as she laughs lightly insisting, “I did warn you.”

He shrugs his shoulders, “Better knowing then always wondering.”

“That is true,” she agrees, suddenly finding the need to change the topic, to make it as though that moment between them had never happened, “Now that that’s all settled then, how about you tell me the plan for this expedition of yours?”

“Why, pal, I thought you’d never ask.”


End file.
